Projects Page 2012-2013

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  6. Step 1 Brainstorming a Question
  7. Step 2 Variables and Hypotheses
  8. Step 3 Design Your Experiment
  9. Step 4 Plan your experiment
  10. Step 5 Do your experiment
  11. Step 6 Background
  12. Step 7 Analyze Your Data
  13. Step 8 What does it mean?
  14. Step 9 Prepare for Presentation
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iaho-tem3

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fire_starting.JPG



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http://www.google.com/imgres?q=metal+match&hl=en&safe=active&biw=1024&bih=578&gbv=2&tbm=isch&tbnid=EeRCaFujSaBAjM:&imgrefurl=http://www.mountainultralight.com/2010/11/product-review-backpacking-light.html&docid=Wgqot6_-8DiseM&imgurl=http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_B67zEtSj6Aw/TPRlfBqmNkI/AAAAAAAABNQ/tbwavSKoxCo/s1600/IMG_0616.JPG&w=1600&h=1200&ei=oiJNT4KNOab10gGgu5zWAg&zoom=1

Broad Question

What is the best tinder to use to start a fire with a metal match?

Specific Question

What would be the best tinder to start a fire with a metal match dry grass, pine-needle, birch bark, leaf, or cotton?





Variables

Independent Variable:

Tinders

Dependent Variable:

Time burned (sec/h)

Variables That Need To Be Controlled:

The same burning surface
The same amount of tinder

Hypothesis

I hypothesize that cotton will light and burn the longest.

graph of Hypothesi

iaho_tem3_hypgraph.JPG


General Plan




Experimental Design

I am going to do an experiment that will help me determine what would be the best tinder to start a fire with a metal match. I will be doing me experiment at my friends house because I do not have a proper fire pit.I don’t need any subjects because it is a one person project.For the experiment i will be doing ten trials for each of the five tinder's i have decide to use cotton, dry grass, leaves, pine needles and, birch bark.
I will be recording the data as I do my experiment on a data table I printed out ahead of time.When I start my project i will start be getting all the materials I need so I have them when I need them. I will then start be taking the first tinder and strike the metal match in to the tinder until it starts to burn. As soon as it starts to burn I will time it till it burns out. Then I will record the data in the data table I made ten times for all five tinder’s.
Materials list
  • 1 metal match
  • stopwatch
  • data table
  • 1 bag of leaves
  • 1 bag of pine needle’s
  • 1 bag of birch bark
  • 1 bag of cotton
  • 1 bag of dry grass
  • 1 fire pit
  • 1 bucket of water for safety

Detailed Procedure
  1. Go to Walmart and buy a metal match.
  2. Go outside and collect all five different tinder’s.
  3. Get the cotton and put it in a small pail.
  4. Take the metal match and strike it and to the tinder.
  5. As soon as it start to burn start the stop watch.
  6. When it stops burning, stop the stop watch.
  7. Record all the data for each of the ten trials in the data table speed sheet.
  8. Get the birch bark and put them in a small pail.
  9. Repeat steps 4 -7.
  10. Get the dry grass and put them in a small pail.
  11. Repeat steps 4-7.
  12. Get the pine needle’s and put them in a small pail.
  13. Repeat steps 4-7
  14. Get the leafs and put them in a small pail.
  15. Repeat steps 4-7
  16. Take pictures of the experiment and some of the materials i used.
  17. Put the data from the data table on computer and upload the pictures.

Resources and Budget Table



Background Research

Place the tip of the metal match on the dry leaf, holding the metal match in one hand and a knife in the other. Scrape your knife against the metal match to produce sparks. The sparks will hit the tinder.

A firesteel and scraper, or what used to be a flint, is a tubed piece of metal, usually steel or magnesium, that creates sparks when you run the metal scraper down the tube.

The metal match often referred to as flint is found in the form of rod from about one to two inches in length. It is composed of a metal alloy known as ferrocerium. The company Light My Fire makes a popular metal match by the name of Swedish FireSteel. It comes in three sizes The Mini giving 1,500 sparks The Scout giving 3,000 sparks and The Army giving 12,000 sparks.The Mini-Match is a pint size firestarter that packs a huge value into a little space. A miniature magnesium rod with a built in flint rod and separate striker, the Mini-Match is a dependable all weather all terrain non-fragile fire starter for all your outdoor activities. It fits easily in an Altoids type tin survival kit leaving plenty of room for other components. The striker is attached with a key chain.


References

"Do you have 5 Ways to Make Fire?." survival cache. Web. 1 Jan.
"HOW TO LIGHT A FIRE." wilderness survival: Firecraftt. Web. 1 Jan.
Platts, Linda E. "Forest Fires." 24 Mar. 1999. Web. 19 Jan. 2012.
"The "metal match", often referred to as "flint", is found in the form of rod from about one to two inches in length. It is composed of a metal alloy known as ferrocerium. The company Light My Fire makes a popular metal match by the name of Swedish FireSteel. It comes in three sizes: The Mini (giving 1,500 sparks), The Scout (giving 3,000 sparks), and The Army (giving 12,000 sparks).." www.southwestguidebooks.com/primitive_skills/fire.htm. Web. 1 Jan.





Conclusion


Data table


Graphs


iaho_tem3_resultsgraph.JPG

Photos

external image images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSYL0Dz7QlIFC2x_NJsz8T4hhrfLDBtDD1ElNS9aJLCZJM8dhMj
http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSYL0Dz7QlIFC2x_NJsz8T4hhrfLDBtDD1ElNS9aJLCZJM8dhMj

Data Analysis

Conclusion

The purpose of this experiment was to determine which tinder would burn longest.I did this by striking a metal match into different tinders one by one. Using a stopwatch, I time the amount of time each tinder burned. I repeated this ten times for each tinder. The results of the experiment were that birch bark and cotton burned for the longest amount of time. The birch bark burned for an average of 19.61 sec. The cotton burned for an average of 14.2 sec. The dry grass burned for an average of 1.65 sec. The leaves burned for an average time of .66 sec.The pine needles burned for an average time of .67 sec.

Discussion


My hypothesis was that birch bark and cotton would burn the longest.My results did support my hypothesis. Some patterns and trends that my data showed was that dry grass, pine needles, and leaves all had low burn times and the data was pretty consistent. The birch bark and cotton times kept going up and down throughout the experiment. The relationship between the independent (tinder) and dependent (time burned sec/h) variables is that if the amount of tinder is changed, the time burned will changed.
I think that the experiment went very well. I had all the materials I need the do my experiment and had no trouble doing it. If I could improve my experiment I would do more tests so that the data would be more accurate. An interesting future study might involve testing different tinders and different lighting methods such as other barks, plants, woods, and or fire starting materials.